Deniz Kurtel Crosses America for ‘Double Exposure’ Tour
Visual Artist and Producer Will Unveil Her New LED Installation
‘The Introspectacular’ While Previewing Tracks From
Her Forthcoming Album “The Way We Live” (Wolf + Lamb)Last year Deniz Kurtel burst into the popular consciousness with her debut album “Music Watching Over Me” on trendsetting label Crosstown Rebels, earning critical praise for her totally fresh take on house music, and bewitching live audio visual club shows. 2012 will see her once again captivating audiences with her musical

productions and visual art, as her April road tour, ‘Double Exposure’ takes her across the US.

A two pronged tour, ‘Double Exposur
“Double Exposure” is the second time Kurtel has paired a piece of LED art directly with her music, but marks the first time where the audience will be able to affect the experience. ‘The Introspectacular’, like much of Kurtel’s LED work, establishes an isolated space where the infinite reflections and layers of depth, achieved through her use of mirrors and LEDs, create a stimulus for inner-reflection and introspection. Housed in a 6×12 enclosed trailer, participants can control some of the LED lights via the keys of a midi controller, which simultaneously produces sounds, creating a visual mapping of what the participant is hearing and vice-versa.e’ will see Deniz will unveil her new LED sculpture ‘The Introspectacular’ while premiering her album ‘The Way We Live’ at 15 club shows in 12 cities around the country including Miami, Washington DC, New York, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The tour kicks off in Washington DC on April 7 and concludes in San Francisco on April 29. ‘The Way We Live’ will be released on Wolf + Lamb June 4th, 2012.

“With the ability to generate a sound and a light with the same key, I wanted to facilitate a deeper connection with the basic senses of the participants while also engaging their sense of creativity,” said Kurtel of The Introspectacular.

Kurtel will drive across America towing ‘The Introspectacular”. The piece will be exhibited in twelve cities she visits on her journey, outside galleries and public spaces. Kurtel will also be playing live club shows in each of the cities, where she will debut music from her new album ‘The Way We Live’, which will be released on Wolf + Lamb in May. The LED piece will also be exhibited outside these music venues.

When discussing her debut album Kurtel noted that she want Her sophomore LP builds on the soulful mystical house of her debut, taking audiences on a narrative journey through the slower tempo spectrum of electronic music. From the hip-hop front and pacing of The Way We Live and Right On, to the haunting vocal strains of Art Department’s Kenny Glasgow on ‘Don’t Wanna Be’ to the Prince like funk of ‘Thunder Clap’, Kurtel keeps her listeners guessing, and most definitely excited.ed to “constantly grow and evolve, and make music that excites [her], hoping it excites others too.” It’s clear that on ‘The Way We Live’ she has followed through on that philosophy. A collaborative album, she is joined on every track a selection of the Marcy All Stars, including Soul Clap, Wolf + Lamb, Tanner Ross, Thugfucker, Pillow Talk, Voices of Black and more.

Cosmic superhero duo Voices of Black arrive at Wolf and Lamb after half a decade of fighting fraudulence and saving the lives of suicidal supermodels. ‘Plastic Dolls’ is their momento of these times from two producers that are only just two decades old.

What is Lust? Is it evil or simply the purest form of desire without restrictions… Glam? Bright Lights of the city, downtown Manhattan. The city, the dreams, the let downs, the beauty the scum. The rotten apple washed off and given to a substitute school teacher… Glitz? Borderline sickly looking girls that don’t even model… Candy? The rewards of righteous living. A young pretty girl´s dream of being on a runway until she falls and is no longer needed… ‘Plastic Dolls’ is a celebration of the fraud, the lust, the glam, glitz and glamour of the runway, the scene and its long lost followers.

Growing up in Teaneck, New Jersey, Voices of Black channeled their musical prowess into progressive hip-hop, culminating in their self-released, psychedelic album experiment, ‘Tomorrow’s Today’ in 2009. Their move to Providence, Rhode Island and a chance encounter with Ana Beatriz Barros (in their fantasies) inspired their latest creation and debut release on Wolf + Lamb, ‘Plastic Dolls’. Voices of Black’s haunted house tracks chronicle their escape from a counterfeit club scene. On ‘Plastic Dolls’, the influence of their heroes—Fela Kuti, George Clinton, J Dilla & Thom Yorke—shines through from time to time, but more often the soundscape is their own, perfect for the runway, or a long, heartbreaking drive home.

“We began working on the album last spring, at a time when we were unsure about making sample based music at all for our next project,” explains Jules. “One morning, however, during a studio session, we were messing around on the sp606 and watching the E channel on mute. An interview with Ana Beatriz Barros came on and thanks to the glorious blessing of digital cable, we paused it as she was speaking, admiring her beauty and ambiguous looks. We then decided ‘let´s make some songs that sound like what she looks like!’”

Jules and Baba soon created three tracks made for models and the runway without really realizing what they would later become. The album became a snapshot of the modeling industry, with ‘Plastic Dolls’ awash with photographic flashes (‘Loft Rooftop’), low slung 80s sultry sounds (’13 Shade’) and snippets of female conversation sampled and chopped throughout the album.
“The concept of focusing on models, the runway and the fraud was something that emerged from the conversations Jules and I have had, and continue to have,” says Baba of their ongoing obsession. “While we were finishing the tracks, Jules was in a transitional point, getting tired of the New York scene. Every now and then we´d chill in Soho and Nolita, and you´d see a lot of beautiful girls. Many had hopes of modeling one day. After a while the whole scene surrounding that just became nauseating for us. So much fraud.”

‘Plastic Dolls’ moves with the groove of hiphop, the beats of house and the stride of pop music way in the future. Emulating the production skills of Moodyman with a pinch of psychedelia and dose of soul, it maintains its originality through a sharp cut and paste approach. “I think that kind of crept up into the attitude that we put into the tracks too,” says Baba, “There´s kind of this double face, where it’s glitzy and glamorous but also really cold and hollow.”

Voices of Black are Babatunde Doherty AKA Baba and Julian Randolph AKA Jules Born. Their twenty and twenty-one years of respective experience began to collide in musical terms in 2006 while at high school, when they began making music together. Now Baba’s attendance at Brown University alongside fellow luminary Nicolas Jaar gave them an introduction to the much admired Wolf + Lamb label. “We are excited to be on Wolf + lamb because they have a strong international audience and we feel that they put out dope genuine artists and allow us to be creative with no restrictions,” Jules enthuses. They both currently reside in Providence Rhode Island, just north of New York City. The album was made through a series of file sharing between the pair in which they vowed only to work on songs when their muse, Ana Beatriz Barros, was visible.